Putting women into top positions won’t happen without changing the culture of the organisation
For gender balancing to work, nothing less than a complete change in the culture of an organisation is required. This is the reason all gender experts advocate that the CEO needs to be committed to the process. Any change in a business culture is hard, but the kind of social change needed for balancing the genders is enormous. It involves re-examining every aspect of the business to uncover where unconscious bias towards women exists, and rebuilding a different culture that supports both genders. And, much of the time, without the buy-in of all the different levels of management (usually mostly men), there’s going to be plenty of resistance to even getting initial plans off the ground.
Why is such a comprehensive change necessary?
Most business cultures are very much an alpha male construct. Throughout the centuries, even when humanity was largely involved in agricultural pursuits, men made the rules and were in charge. This was equally true when the industrial revolution occurred. Women have always worked in factories and even in the mines (children as well, until laws were passed forbidding it), but they reported to men who held all the decision-making positions.
Into the 20th century, women started to enter the workplace in increasing numbers, but were strictly curtailed as to the positions 
they held. The majority of women became teachers, nurses or secretaries. In the US, women work as secretaries more than any other position – this was true according to the Census in 1950, and was still true in the 2010 Census. When you consider that women in the US are now more highly educated than men, holding more primary degrees, as well as more Masters and PhD degrees, it’s astonishing that so little progress has been made after 60 years.
As we know, men are running most organisations today, as they have done in the past (about 95% of CEOs are male). Consequently, most businesses operate according to a male perspective – this means that all decision-making, be it about hiring, promotion or remuneration, is heavily biased in favour of men. While this situation continues, no real progress can be made to fully utilise the skills and abilities of women. And it’s essential that we do – bearing in mind that women control about 80% of total consumer spending and are now the largest pool of qualified talent available throughout the world. Not to mention that the presence of women in senior management improves almost all aspects of corporate governance and has a direct effect on improving the bottom line.
Read More»How do companies begin to conduct successful gender balancing?
As we move towards legislation in South Africa that will require all companies to have women fill 50% of every decision-making level, many captains of industry are going to be looking at ways to meet these quotas
Read More»The Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill – Friend or Foe?
Any day now, the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill (WEGE) is likely to be passed into law in South Africa. When it does, the country’s economic landscape will start to change dramatically.
The Bill requires that women occupy 50% of all decision-making positions within an organisation. Current statistics show that women comprise about 15.5% of all directorship positions. No statistics are yet available on a national basis for the number of women in senior management positions, or of membership of executive committees, but it won’t be higher than 15.5% (the reason for this is that non-executive director positions are easier to fill with ‘minorities’ if required; it’s more difficult to ‘fix the numbers’ below Board level where staff are full-time employed and operational).
So what, on the surface, are the first impressions of this new proviso for business – is it going to be good or bad for the economy? – is it a friend or a foe?
Read More»Your Company Doesn’t Need a Women’s Network
Very soon, legislation may be passed in South Africa that will require all companies to have a 50% representation by women at all decision-making levels. This historic shift will have many businesses scrambling to re-arrange their corporate structures – moves that are currently being made by companies around the globe who are catching up to the massive change that has taken place in the world. This shift now sees women as the majority of educated Talent in the world, as controlling the largest consumer-spend on the planet, and as a means to improving a company’s bottom line fairly dramatically when they rise up into senior management positions. The article below, by global Gender Expert, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, provides some excellent views as to the mistakes that many businesses are currently making in their quest to attain a better balance between the genders.
Empowering women has a positive effect on reducing poverty
The fact that having one or more women in senior management / C-suite positions has numerous positive effects on business is already well known. These benefits include much improved corporate governance, a greatly decreased possibility of insolvency, better ability to relate to the largest section of the consumer market (which is 70% comprised of women worldwide) and, consequently, improved profitability.
But what effect does this empowerment have at a social level?
Read More»Is the customer still King – or is she now the Queen?
Statistics from across the globe would indicate that the customer is now very definitely the Queen! How would we determine who our customer is? By looking at buying power and finding out who has decision-making authority when it comes to purchasing consumables. By both definitions, the King has definitely been de-throned.
Why is gender balancing so important?
What we are experiencing in the workplace at present is nothing short of a revolution – certainly it’s a historic shift. More women than ever before are entering the world of work (the workforce in the US, for the first time in history, is now comprised of more women than men), women now make up the largest talent pool of qualified candidates available for hire, and they are eager and willing to take on more responsibility at work.
And yet leadership roles for women still prove elusive.
So, why should companies take gender balancing more seriously?
Unconscious bias
Enormous discrimination against women still continues to exist in the workplace, even in first world countries like the United States. The profiles of C-Suite employees around the world show that most companies still favour promoting men over women but, even at more junior levels, there is bias against women – albeit that this bias is sometimes unconscious.
This fact was highlighted in a recent experiment in America. Here are the details:
A resume of a fictitious person was sent to a selection of 147 college professors at 6 major research universities. The professors were asked to rate this resume as part of a study. The ‘candidate’ was a recent graduate who was seeking a position as a laboratory manager. All professors received the same one-page summary which portrayed a promising candidate, but not someone outstanding. The only difference? – on half of the resumes, the mythical candidate was called John; on the other half the candidate was named Jennifer.
Read More»Gender balancing – quotas or social pressure?
Gender diversity is now one of the hottest topics around the world, with hardly any country unable to ignore the groundswell of pressure to increase the balance of genders at the highest levels in business and in the public sector. Governments are wrestling with how best to encourage this gender balancing – through incentives, public influence or through legislation (with a time limit, or with penalties, should efforts not be seen to be made).
In South Africa, we are on the verge of having the Women Empowerment and GenderEquality Bill passed into law. This legislation will require that women fill 50% of all decision-making positions in companies (which include C-Suite roles). From an administrative point of view, this shouldn’t pose too many difficulties. We have had over a decade of BBBEE programmes, so are fully conversant with targets, with preferred procurement policies and with penalties for non-compliance. Managing these new targets administratively will be fairly easy – they will simply be included into existing scorecards and will form part of reporting, which is already required on an annual basis. The true challenge will be in implementing these new guidelines. From the physical point of view of identifying, developing and including countless women into management structures, a total shift in culture is going to be required.
Are quotas the right way to go?
Read More»Good leaders make better tomorrows
- At October 14, 2012
- By admin
- In Executive coaching
0
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